Prodigies, welcome back to the second installment of Nerds Rewatch Prodigal! If you’re not familiar with this series, every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, we’ll be pressing play to rewatch an episode of Prodigal Son. Last week, we put our rewatch goggles on for episode 11 of season 2, “You Can Run….” This week, we delved into the events of the season’s penultimate episode, “Sun and Fun,” with a new perspective now that we know what events unfold in order to point out some of its most striking moments and features. Without further ado, let’s jump into what we noticed in episode 12!
The Not-So-Good Doctor’s Deceit
Prodigal Son is known for its twists and turns, but the extent of this one is something that viewers just couldn’t have seen coming. If you didn’t already have your suspicions, this episode all but confirmed that Capshaw should’ve been a patient at Claremont herself if you know what I mean. The extent of her manipulative tendencies and Angel of Death complex revealed themselves throughout this episode. What was really the icing on the cake was the last scene where the not-so-good doctor lets out an extremely convincing, bloodcurdling scream and convinces the police that she’s the victim in the situation — all while having tortured Malcolm and Martin beforehand. Catherine Zeta-Jones really pulled out all the stops for this episode. One truly has to commend her performance. Top-notch work as always.
Jessica Gets A Phone Call
One of this episode’s more tense moments is when Martin manages to maneuver himself close enough to the phone to dial before Capshaw intercepts him. Particularly since we don’t know who he’s dialing until Jessica picks up. The conversation that follows is fascinating, as we watch Jessica process what exactly Capshaw is saying. Then, the scene somehow manages to become even more tense as Jessica opts to play the call off to Ainsley as a wrong number. Given what we know of Jessica, the fact that she actively chooses to keep the conversation to herself is rather surprising – especially later in the episode when she keeps it from Gil too.
That being said, as intriguing and important to the plot as this scene is, it does leave us with a few questions. For example, why does Martin call Jessica? Is Jessica’s number the only one he knows? That seems unlikely as he uses a non-digital landline in Claremont, so he must dial Malcolm’s number with some regularity. Also, Jessica seems like an odd choice given that of his family she is the one who most openly shows her disdain for him. Beyond that, why did Capshaw bother having this conversation? It seems likely that there would be police around anyone Martin might be able to call, as evidenced by JT being at the house in the previous episode, so why risk it? The scene was brilliantly acted, but certainly left us with questions.
Martin’s In Misery
Michael Sheen and Catherine Zeta-Jones are both masters of their craft, and nowhere is this more evident than in this episode. The cat and mouse game between Capshaw and Martin has always been fascinating to watch, but with the reversal of fortune for Martin it becomes even more engrossing. Capshaw is truly unhinged, but in an intelligent way — which is bad news for Martin, who is used to being the smartest one in the room. Zeta-Jones gets to really let loose, and thus Capshaw gets to live up to her potential as a villain. The scenes that feature Sheen and Zeta-Jones together are master classes in acting while being wildly entertaining. While this dynamic might have been tough to watch at times, the talent of both actors always made it interesting and unpredictable.
The Ship of Dreams
“You Can Run…” gave us all kinds of edge of your seat drama, but it also brought us a moment of pure joy: the ship of dreams sailed. Okay, they didn’t exactly declare their undying love for one another, but Malcolm and Dani finally shared a (steamy) kiss that felt like it was long overdue after their adorable and sometimes awkward flirting. It’s a moment of rash action, and I can say I threw my arms up in victory however short lived the moment may have been what with Malcolm literally running away after it happens. We’re sad we’ll never get to see these two lovebirds story unfold after this passionate little make out session, but we’ll choose to smile because it happened.
Make sure to join us next Tuesday for our live-tweet event under the tag #NerdsRewatchProdigal and the Twitter account @Call4BackupPod as we press play at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on episode 13. Additionally, you can listen to our corresponding commentary for this week’s episode on our podcast Call For Backup here. Make sure to stay up to date with all of the news concerning Prodigal Son and the campaign to save the show here. Until next week, Prodigies!
